London Literature Festival
What a way to end our first year of StorySLAM:Live. Saturday 17th July at the SouthBank Centre was a triumph from start to finish. All the signs were there that our event at the London Literature Festival was going to be the biggest and best yet. Tickets sold out a week before, we had some talented writers lining up to compete and a judging panel to sit up and take notice of.
St Paul’s Pavilion, reached by the glass lift in the Festival Hall was a perfect venue for the afternoon. Surrounded by the buildings that make up the capitals cultural hub our entrants rose to the occasion and delivered a programme of stories that were remarkable in their variety and of a quality that kept the judges and the audience enthralled.
Charlie introduced the judges. We were lucky to have Rachel Holmes who is the Head of Literature and Spoken Word at the SouthBank and without whom there would be no London Literature Festival. Rachel was joined by Paul Burston, author of several best sellers-his latest book The Gay Divorcee tops Amazon regularly. Rachel set the tone for the event by declaring herself as Simon Cowell which left the role of Cheryl for Paul.
Edd Hunter, who won StorySlam:Live02, and was subsequently commissioned to write the serialised short story Nooks and Crannies for Spread the Word, kicked off the event with a new piece ‘Time to be a Man. Charlie then steered us through the competition with his unique brand of humour that strikes just the right balance, relaxing the competitors and making us laugh. We had a few hiccups with starting the clock, but that was just a small blip in the proceedings. As ever, we make the event a joy for literature and music lovers alike with great music from Derek Richards who is also responsible for our seamless production.
The judges were amazed by the standard of the stories they heard but settled on Hugh Fergus-Jordan with his ‘ A Birthday Wish’ as the winner. Highly commended by the judges were Janett Plummer with Sweat Rice and Doug Hanley with Father’s Flock. Hugh gets the prize of £100 as well as a place on the SBC Creative Writing workshop of his choice.
There’s more than one way of winning StorySLAM:Live. We were also delighted for Feyi Coker, whose performance of ’Superman Returns’ earned him an on the spot booking from Rachel to appear in the Children’s Literature Festival next February. Ryan Childs will be performing ‘Queer Bashing’ at Polari the Gay and Lesbian Literary Salon hosted by Paul Burston in the SBC.
We have many exciting plans, starting with our Autumn Programme. Watch our events page so you don’t miss the chance to pre-book your slot. Another new feature will be the introduction of ‘readers’ – actors who will perform your story if getting on stage is not your thing. StorySLAM:Live is judged on the quality of the writing entered not the performance skills. Don’t miss the next opportunity to join our growing band of winning writers.
If you want to see the quality of the competition we’re going to be putting some of our highlights on the site with videos of our winners and favourites with a new ‘Hall of Fame’ feature. So on that note, until the next time, thanks to all who have made StorySLAM:Live such a great success so far.
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